posh frock friday

During quarantine I've seen so many people say that they are wearing sweatpants or pajamas because they have nowhere to go and it's weird because "having nowhere to go" has kind of been my whole life for the last 15 years. I've been working from home since I was 17, and I don't really have much of a social life. (Okay I don't have ANY social life. I might as well be honest here lol!)

Taking outfit pictures has been a fun way to document my outfits even when the only person seeing them in person is my cat. I definitely could have spent most of my life in pajamas, but I haven't for a few reasons. First of all, I feel way way way less productive in pajamas. When I get dressed in the morning I feel like it's "time to work" and I get way more done. If I stay in pajamas it's just way too easy to crawl back into bed - especially easy when my office is just about fifteen paces away from my bedroom. I also just really enjoy clothes. I haven't wasted away my income on dresses so they can sit in my closet. I love wearing them, so I wear them! And lastly, this might be crazy but I feel like I don't appreciate how comfortable pajamas are unless I've been wearing real clothes all day. I love that moment before bedtime when I put on fresh jammies, and I don't think I'd enjoy it as much if I was just changing from one pair of pajamas into another lol!

Also honestly getting dressed has helped me feel like I have *some* control over something during Everything That's Going On. When I got really sick in 2017-2018 I lived in pajamas for a few months until I started to recover, and one of the things I was most looking forward to was wearing my pretty clothes again. It made me feel like my life was kind of normal again when I was finally able to ditch the elastic waistbands for fancy frocks. Every day that I get dressed and glide a thick black line across my eyelid, I've done something normal and executed a little bit of control over my life. It's such a small thing but honestly it makes a huge difference to me.

posh frock black friday!

Happy official start of Christmas season, everyone! There are a lot of sales going on today but just two that I want to mention here --

First of all, there's my own sale in my shop! I have lapel pins, Christmas cards and ornaments, art prints, patches, buttons, pocket mirrors, all kinds of stuff! It's all designed by me (and packed by me!) and it's all 30% off with code MISTLETOE. This is actually the biggest discount I've ever offered in my shop for Black Friday because I am really itching to pay off some medical bills, so I'm hoping 30% will be tempting enough to make that happen! ;D You can shop my sale right here.

And secondly, MODCLOTH! In my year of near-impoverishment I've very much cut back on spending, and I've been SO looking forward to having a little Christmas money from my parents and grandmom to treat myself! Modcloth is offering 30% off $100+ orders and (wait for it) 40% -- yes FORTY PERCENT -- off $200+ orders. Including sale items!! If you're a Modcloth fangirl like I am you know how rare that kind of discount is! You can shop their sale right here.

I have my eye on these socks, this sweater, this cardigan, and this dress. Also, the dress I'm wearing is from Modcloth and if I didn't already own it you better believe it would be on my wishlist! ;)

dress - c/o modcloth | shoes - aldo

posh frock friday

This dress makes me feel like a Rockette! I even picked these shoes because they are the most "tap dance" shoes that I own.

I did tap and ballet from when I was three until I was sixteen, and I really miss it sometimes. I recently bought a ballet workout DVD to do at home but I feel kind of silly doing it in sweatpants or pajamas so now I feel like I also need a leotard, and a skirt, and ballet shoes... Maybe I should just buy a tap dance DVD instead and I can workout in my Rockette outfit! ;)

If you're participating in Posh Frock Friday don't forget to hashtag your outfit on IG with #poshfrockfridays so that everyone can see your pretty outfit!

dress- vintage from whurl | shoes - bait footwear | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

I might have to start turning this into a bi-weekly feature because it has occurred to me that I don't think I own enough fancy dresses to do a posh frock friday every single week (although, this could be an excuse to buy more posh frocks, lol!)

My collection is actually decreasing quite a bit soon, because I'm going to be doing a vintage sale with Whurl. If you're not familiar with Whurl, it's a shopping app where you can post photos of things that you're searching for and vintage sellers will respond with items that match your search. It's also a shopping marketplace where sellers can list vintage items for sale. In the next week or two I'll be listing a sizeable chunk of my vintage collection on the app -- LOTS of dresses and a few tops. It's not all in my size, so if that's been an issue for you when I do closet sales in the past, definitely check this out. I've always had a habit of buying vintage dresses no matter what size they are, just because they're pretty, lol.

If you're interested, be sure to download the app! And I'll obviously be doing another post before the sale goes live so you'll get a heads up :)

Don't forget if you're participating in posh frock friday, use the hashtag #poshfrockfridays on IG so everyone can see your pretty outfit! xo

dress- vintage | bodysuit - boohoo (old)

shoes - daisy street | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

This dress is one of my unicorns -- a brand new dress that looks like a vintage 60's party dress. They're super hard to find, at least in my experience. Most vintage reproductions seem to be more like classic vintage: 1950's, Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe-ish, wiggle dresses, etc. Even when 60's styles are reproduced, it tends to be mod Twiggy-style mini dresses. Which I love, don't get me wrong, but it's SO hard to find things with knife-pleated chiffon or giant bows along the collar or enormous sheer sleeves. And when I do find them, more often than not they just don't feel as special as the original vintage does... something just feels off.  

BUT THIS DRESS. This dress gets it right. I had this hanging up next to a lilac knife-pleated dress from the 60's in my closet and you would never have been able to guess that they were produced some 50+ years apart. This really feels like vintage. But THANK THE HEAVENS it comes in multiple sizes so it's not like 99% of the vintage dresses sitting in my etsy favorites, whose waist measurements would prevent me from even getting the dress around one thigh.

Don't forget if you're joining in and getting all dolled up today, post your outfit on IG with the hashtag #poshfrockfridays

dress - asos | shoes - bait footwear | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

I don't think there is anything better than a dress you can twirl in. Sartorially speaking, at least. Obviously there are other things that are better ... cats, potatoes, a good nap..

I'd actually forgotten about this vintage gem until I saw Amy Poehler's Emmy dress (btw, three a million cheers for Amy Poehler's first Emmy win!) which also had an embellished cape overlay. It's such a unique detail, but I've never worn mine because I felt like it kind of overwhelmed my body, draping in such a way that you couldn't really see any defined shape, so I looked a little like a blob. But she just looked so amazing in her dress that it gave me the confidence to finally break out mine. And I'm glad I did -- otherwise I wouldn't have had such a fun & silly twirling session ;D

Don't forget if you're joining in and getting all dolled up today, post your outfit on IG with the hashtag #poshfrockfridays <3

dress- vintage | shoes - bait footwear | necklace - vintage

posh frock friday

This dress was waiting for me when I got back from Rome in July, and it was such a nice "welcome home" gift to myself, haha! I've been doing pretty good with my spending, but when I saw this I physically could NOT resist buying it. I even bought it a size smaller than normal because my size was sold out and I needed to own it so badly I decided that it was better to have it hanging in my closet, unwearable, than to not own it at all. It actually ended up fitting pretty well (albeit the lining is a little snug around the hips) and I think my own size might have been too big! I love when things work out that way :)

Don't forget if you're playing along with posh frock friday, share the photo on IG with the hashtag #poshfrockfridays <3

dress- asos | shoes - vintage | flower crown - modcloth (old)
purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

Normally I only post one photo per outfit, or maybe two if I want to show detail or something, but I always feel like that's more than enough. HOWEVER. I had so much fun taking the pictures for this outfit that I honestly couldn't narrow it down and had to do five.



^ New favorite outfit photo of all time?????







Posh Frock Friday is obviously about getting dolled up, but it's also about having fun with your clothes. If you own something that's perfect for twirling and you think you need to reserve it for a special occasion, just remember that the act of wearing a pretty dress is a special occasion, and reason enough to twirl your heart out!

If you want to participate in Posh Frock Friday, just tag your post on instagram with the hashtag #poshfrockfridays

dress- vintage | shoes - bait footwear | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday

This dress actually doesn't quite fit over my hips (I like to pretend that it's entirely because I'm so short that my hips are higher than they are on the dress but it's probably more likely that I just have enormous hips) so I created a blouse (blouson? what is the word?) effect at the waist to compensate. I think it actually looks pretty cool and kind of flapper-ish with this necklace? Anyway, with the sleeves on this dress there was no way I wasn't going to find a way to make it work.

If you want to join in and dress up today, you can hashtag your outfit on instagram #poshfrockfridays

dress - vintage | shoes - bait footwear | necklace - forever 21 I think

posh frock friday

I'm pretty sure that the only people who still read my blog are the ones who have been following it since the beginning, but just in case anyone new has stumbled upon my little corner of the internet since I last posted about this series three years ago --- Posh Frock Friday originated in 2010 as a way of getting to wear the fancier pieces in my closet that don't normally see the light of day unless it's New Year's Eve or my birthday. It's a way to jump-start your self esteem, too, since seeing a dolled-up reflection in the mirror in the morning definitely adds some pep to your step for the rest of the day!

I was going through my dresses for ANOTHER shop my closet sale (I wish I could say that I'm becoming one of those de-cluttering, live-simple wizards but I just need money) and realized I have a whole lot of fancy dresses that I never get to wear. And so Posh Frock Friday was re-born! I'm not going to have a link-up widget on my posts like I used to, but I *am* going to hashtag my outfit posts #poshfrockfridays on instagram if you want to join in! I'm kind of a major failure at ever like.. "starting something" .. so I'm fully expecting the hashtag to be entirely (and pathetically) populated with photos of me alone, but hopefully this time I'll be pleasantly surprised :D

GOD this is the most self deprecating post ever, lol. It's just been that kind of week, mentally. Anyway, I'm hoping to stick with this and maybe be a fraction as dedicated to the series as I was in 2011 when I got dressed up for Posh Frock Friday even though I was sick in bed.

dress - vintage | shoes - bait footwear | purple rug - amazon

posh frock friday!

In 2010 I started a series of outfit posts called Posh Frock Friday, where I'd get all dolled up every Friday for no particular reason except to be wearing something snazzy. I kept it up for I think about a year and then lost steam... I used to be a lot more regimented with my blogging series. Anyway! When I got this dress in the mail, it just SCREAMED Posh Frock Friday!! It's most certainly a posh frock if ever there was one!

It came at a perfect time too.. I've been feeling kind of blah about my appearance lately (if I wasn't sick of the regular maintenance it requires, this would be where I impulsively dye my hair pink) and putting this on just made me feel so much lovelier. I'll tell you, there is nothing like a pretty dress to cure a bad case of low self esteem. That, and food. And cat cuddles.

dress- c/o oasap | shoes - vintage

posh frock friday

dress - swap with Amber
cardigan - c/o modcloth
belt - old navy
shoes - urbanog

I wore this last Friday to go visit my Aunt Annie in the nursing home. I still can't get over how feisty she is for being 100 years old! She started telling us how many people had died since she moved in there and how she even saw one lady die right in front of her. It seemed so sad, and then she smiled, said "ah, well.. less people!" and starting laughing! She has her blue moments, but I love that (for the most part) she has such a flippant attitude and a light way of dealing with dark things.

I'm starting to keep a little journal of some of the things she's said or done lately. Until recently she had a sign on her door that said "Stay the hell out of my room. And I mean it! -Ann" I think the fact that she signed her name on the note was my favorite part. She was also telling us that she needs some new girdles and bras. 100 years old and wheelchair-bound, but she needs a new girdle. How can you not love that?!?

posh frock friday

dress - asos
sweater - h&m
shoes - c/o bait

My hair is just long enough now that I can twist it into sort-of-milkmaid-braids with the help of an army of bobby pins. I can't wait for it to get longer so I can finally start doing buns again! I got tired of teasing it into a beehive but I might do it one more time since I had promised to post a tutorial here and completely forgot!

I changed my workspace up a little bit this week! I found these adorable felt tulips at the craft store this week and HAD to find a use for them. Also I had two new pieces of art that I was dying to hang up and finally did -- an apple pie painting from Everyday is a Holiday and a portrait of a girl with a pink beehive that is actually a cat (!!) from Carol Roque. I moved around some of my desktop clutter too to make things more functional. I love it, and I'm pretty sure Hubble does too...

posh frock friday

dress - h&m (embellished by me)
lace cardigan - forever 21
shoes - urbanog
crochet tights - h&m

I've been so in love with 3D embellishments lately. I keep seeing them everywhere, but it seems like they always go hand in hand with a hefty price tag. I'm especially smitten with this one from ASOS but yikes, is it expensive!! So I decided to do it myself! I took an old lace dress that I got at H&M for $15 last year and 3D-ized it! It looks amazing in person.. I'm so happy with how it came out! :D I have a DIY post scheduled for later today with step by step instructions if anyone wants to try it out too! :)

ps. I did a little interview with Sophie from Her Library Adventures about my style and favorite outfits! You can take a peek here! :) Thank you Sophie!!